A. Field of Invention
This invention pertains to a method and apparatus for distributing multimedia programs in multiple sessions on a single disk, including one session consisting of audio programs in a format readable only by a suitable player device, and a second session consisting of digital files in a format readable only by a PC, this second session including compression versions of the audio programs. The second session may also include graphic and/or text files with content associated with the programs and a dedicated software player program that manages and controls the digital files and the manner in which they are played and/or copied. This invention is applicable to the distribution of audio, as well as video programs.
B. Description of the Prior Art
Programs, including musical selections and other audible and visual content, are sold and distributed using means including CDs, DVDs and other similar physical or electronic media. Until recently, there was no equipment available to would permit an average consumer to duplicate the contents of one CD on another CD and, accordingly, CDs were considerate to be safe from unauthorized copying. However, advances in computer technology resulted in relatively inexpensive software which made copying CDs a very easy and inexpensive procedure. Hence, unauthorized copies of many CDs are made all over the world, resulting in tremendous losses of revenue to the CD producers.
A further problem facing CD producers pertains to the widespread use of the Internet. Originally, the average Internet user had to rely on a dial-up connection which did not have a sufficient bandwidth for the transmission of CD-quality audio programs. However new compression schemes have been developed that are capable of reducing the size of digital audio files substantially. In addition, broadband Internet connection means (including cable and DSL connections) have become widely available as well, These developments allow users to “rip” audio programs from CDs, compress them and transmit the compressed files over the Internet, using, for instance, peer-to-peer networks. This also led to wide-spread unauthorized copying and distribution audio programs from CDs.
Various schemes have been suggested to prevent unauthorized copying and distribution of audio programs. For example, the CDs can be encoded in such a manner that they cannot be read by a standard computer, such as a PC, but can be played on a standard CD player. One such scheme is called MediaCloq™ and is available from SunnComm, Inc. of Phoenix, Ariz. (See www.sunncomm.com). However, some consumers who have bought a CD want to transfer its contents on their PC so that they can listen to the audio programs either on their the PC and/or copy the programs to small personal audio players adapted to play store these audio programs as digital files on a solid state memory and to play the audio programs by decompressing the digital files.
Enhanced CDs are also known that provide two sessions audio programs in two sessions on a single medium, such as a CD, one session including the audio programs having a format readable only by an audio player device and the second session having digital files in a format readable only by a general purpose computer such as a PC. The second session includes digital files including compressed versions of the audio programs and additional files containing text and/or graphic elements. The additional digital files can include information about the various musical selections on the CD, the artists who recorded the musical selections, lyrics, pictures associated with the CD and its artists, and so on. However, the second session is encoded and formatted so that it can be read using only certain, usually proprietary software, such as Microsoft's Windows Multimedia Audio program.
Enhanced CDs are not satisfactory because their second session can be read only if the specific player software has been installed on their computer. Since there are several competing such software players available, the consumer can take advantage of the digital files of the second session only if he has the appropriate software player program installed on his computer. More importantly, at least from the point of view of the PC producers, the enhanced CDs still do not solve the problem of unauthorized copying.
These problems are also applicable to the distribution of other multimedia programs such as videos and the like.